Ben in Toronto

I cannot speak highly enough of our experience working with Jay and his crew. From our first meeting to our final farewell, their reliability, competence, and collaborative, positive attitude were constants. Our job was not large, but it wasn't particularly simple either - it involved swapping the locations of a too-small bedroom and a too-large (and very outdated) bathroom as well as a variety of improvements in a third room. It involved plumbing, electrical, ventilation, penetrations to the exterior, etc. I'm an architect, and both my wife and I were quite particular about how we wanted all of the details and finishes to look in the end. Jay picked up very quickly on what we were hoping to accomplish at our first meeting, taking notes, asking all the right questions, and even making suggestions right away about the best ways to tackle certain challenges. He provided a detailed and comprehensive quote that was quite reasonable, and importantly, he put realistic cost placeholders for all of the fixtures and finishes. We of course were able to select more expensive showerheads and floor tiles and the cost went up accordingly, but having those placeholders gave us a much more complete sense of the potential project costs. Every other contractor we talked to gave us quotes just for labour and pre-finish materials, leaving it as a matter of guesswork as to what the final bottom line would look like. Once we agreed on a contract and a start date, Jay told us that it would take his team two weeks assuming we had selected/purchased all of the fixtures and tiles by that time. We thought, based on prior experience with contractors, "Two weeks? I guess we'll plan for four to six." Pessimism that in this case was entirely unwarranted. We got everything in order for their arrival, and on the planned start date, Jay showed up with a team of six at 9:00 on the dot. Every day they worked diligently from 9:00am to 7:30pm. They completed the demolition in a single day (including removing 1.5 tons (!) of old tile and cement). They completed the plumbing and electrical in two days. They added in a full attic reinsulation and building of a new access hatch at a very reasonable additional cost and no schedule impact. They kept the house relatively tidy - setting up plastic sheeting, removing construction waste every day, and vacuuming the halls and stairs before leaving every evening. They were friendly and open to input, making small adjustments and corrections without a hint of complaint. All in all, they completed their work in 8 calendar days. The efficiency was remarkable, but the quality didn't suffer. We were pleased with virtually every aspect of the finishing, and where we found small deficiencies, Jay and his team came back in a timely fashion to fix them. Other than the attic insulation scope (which we added of our own accord) there was not a dollar of additional cost. We were happy with every aspect of the process, and we're delighted with the result - a beautiful new bathroom and two much improved bedrooms for our kids. I would recommend this crew without hesitation. In fact, I've already done so to half my friends! The experience was so positive that my wife and I are looking to take on other home improvements sooner than we'd originally planned, and there's no one we'd rather work with than Jay.

With a new baby on the way, my wife and I decided we needed to do something about the hollow, reverberant wall separating the nursery from our toddler's room. The only thing worse than one kid awake and screaming is two... We found So Quiet after looking at online reviews and making a couple of calls. So Quiet sent out Brendan to review the site/project requirements promptly, and he put together a detailed and comprehensive proposal within a couple of days. The price was fair, and he accommodated our need for a quick turnaround on the project. Brendan remained our point person on the project all the way through completion - he was consistently polite, professional and upfront. I appreciated having him as a single point of accountability from the beginning to the end of the project. The scope of the work was removal of the drywall from two walls, filling of the cavity with acoustic insulation, and then the application of two layers of 5/8" acoustic drywall and reconstruction of the trim. The work took 6 business days and involved four individuals other than Brendan. One guy did the demo and insulation; he returned with a second guy to do the drywalling; a third guy did the mudding, taping, sanding and trim; and a fourth removed all the project waste. All were friendly and polite. The demo and drywalling guys were meticulously tidy, the mudding/taping/sanding guy less so, but not terrible. I probably did 10-15 minutes of clean up in the hall and on the stairs each evening after he worked. The one hiccup in the project came on day 5, a Friday they had targeted as completion day. We had emphasized how useful it be for us if we could have the space ready for the weekend so that we could do our painting and furniture set-up work. Brendan had stated he was confident that the project could be completed by then, but it was too tight for his workers. They rushed the details at the end, and then told Brendan they had finished. When I came home to check it out, it was clear that there was still work to do. The old baseboard had been reinstalled messily - chips and cracks, blobs of caulking, and even a sharp nail sticking out. Damage on adjacent walls from the construction had not been fully filled and sanded. Clean-up was far from done as well. When I communicated this to Brendan, to his credit he did not try to defend the work. He simply said "that is not a finished condition" and said that they would rectify things on Monday. He came personally to ensure that things came together with the appropriate level of finish. They patched the remaining rough spots on the walls, and completely replaced the baseboards and quarter rounds with new materials. The work looked good. So we lost the weekend as an opportunity for us to do our own work, but the work ended up being done right with the extra day - a worthwhile trade-off. They cleaned up relatively well - "contractor clean" is certainly not the same as "tidy home clean", and I had to spend a full evening sucking up plaster dust, mopping floors, and hosing down the porch to get things back to normal, but this is pretty much par for the course with construction work in my experience. Cleaning up let me perform a good sound test however: I brush-vacuumed the plaster dust off of the walls for a good half hour while my daughter slept in the next room and she didn't budge! My wife and I also tried out our best baby wail impressions while the other one of was on the other side of the wall. It was audible, but only very faintly. This was a huge improvement - before, the wall might as well have been made of paper. So, all in all, we were pleased. Good service, fair price, good finished product, and most importantly, the soundproofing seems effective!